Innoculations
by sunlitroses
Summary: Morbid curiosity drew her to the infirmary the next morning. Biggie hadn't shown any signs of anything, but given that Magnus had literally shot him once with no ill effects, she wasn't taking that as proof positive of safety.


Disclaimer: I own nothing and profit none.

A/N: So, uh, hi! Been awhile. I'm feeling my way back into this, though, and realised that I've never done very much with Kate... so now I have! Just as a warning, I really have no explanation for the end of this, it kinda took a turn on me. Glad to see you all again!

* * *

It would figure that the drug would let out the one corner of herself that she tried so hard to crush mercilessly.

Magnus hadn't needed the inoculation – something about taking it years ago which, in Magnus-terms, could translate to early in the twenty-first century or early in the twenties. The three of them had been busy squabbling over who would be the guinea pig when Biggie rolled his eyes and let Magnus stab him with the needle. It hadn't really halted them, though, until she then told them to take it somewhere else and send a victim in tomorrow.

"Tomorrow?" Will had half-smiled. "You think it's going to take us that long? What does this thing do exactly?"

"It had certainly better not take the lot of you that long. I know all of you have work to be getting on with," Magnus replied, busily putting the tray away and not even looking over her shoulder to make sure the not-so-subtle hint struck home. It had, of course. She was annoyingly good at that. It didn't mean that Kate was going to listen to her, though. "Only one of you per day. The inoculation can produce strange side effects and I can only keep tabs on one of you at a time."

"I think she's saying we're difficult," Henry said in a fake-whisper.

"Incredibly," was the deadpan answer, followed by a pointed nod towards the infirmary door. "Now, go. Work. Draw straws, if necessary."

Kate was pretty sure that last statement was supposed to be a joke. The fact didn't prevent her from stealing three straws from the Big Guy's broom and dragging Hank with her to Will's shrink lair. Luckily, his door was open. He looked up at their entrance a touch nervously, but relaxed when Kate stopped in front of his desk and produced her hand full of straws.

"Seriously?" he rolled his eyes. "This is your best idea?"

"Hey, if you want to go first," Kate shrugged.

He frowned, before reaching across his desk and tugging a straw out. Hank followed and then Kate opened her hand to check out the remaining straw resting on her palm.

"Last," she grinned. The boys grimaced before comparing their straws. Henry's face fell dramatically.

"Aw, man," he groaned. "Did you rig this?"

"One hundred percent honest," she vowed which, Kate admitted, given her being, well, her, wasn't all that reassuring. "I was kinda hoping for the middle, actually," she added, honestly.

"Wanna trade?" Will asked, lips quirking as a sign that he wasn't entirely serious.

"Nope," she replied breezily and headed out for the armory. If she had three days before the needle, then she certainly wasn't going to spend the time dreading the thought. She had work to avoid doing. And Hank had just finished some new sort of stunner that looked even more Matrix-y than his usual style. That should kill some time.

* * *

Morbid curiosity drew her to the infirmary the next morning. Biggie hadn't shown any signs of anything, but given that Magnus had literally shot him once with no ill effects, she wasn't taking that as proof positive of safety.

She smirked when Will, apparently, had the same idea.

"What is this?" Henry growled. "Some sick idea of entertainment? Can't a man get a shot in private."

"Yes," Kate couldn't resist. "But we're here to see you."

It took a second, but Hank caught on just about the time Will snorted and only Magnus' entrance saved her from whatever he would have deemed sufficient retaliation.

"Slow morning?" came complete with one Magnus Eyebrow-Of-Meaning and Kate really wished she could do that maneuver with the same effect. She'd tried perfecting it in her bathroom mirror but, as it still made her giggle, she hadn't tried it out in public yet.

"Moral support," Will chimed in glibly, adding after Hank's snort, "and maybe a look at what's ahead."

Shaking her head, Magnus quietly advised Henry, "Look away," before swabbing the area and injecting the syringe. Quickly replacing the needle with a cotton ball and tape, Magnus pulled her gloves off and tossed them in the biohazard bin. "Done. Henry," she waited until he was looking up at her again, "if you feel strange at all, come find me, alright? I'll be in my office. Anything at all, got it?"

"Right, Doc," he nodded. "But I feel fine right now. So…" he trailed off.

"Go on," she motioned towards the door with a smirk. "I swear, you'd think I tortured you all down here."

"Well," Kate began as Hank exited, before Will elbowed her in the ribs. "Oomph."

"You two may go as well," Magnus smiled at their antics. "Who's up tomorrow?"

"Him," Kate said, paying Will back with a punch to the arm that was a little harder than it appeared.

"Ow," he complained. "Yeah, me. Hey, should we be keeping an eye out for Henry or something?"

"I'll be monitoring him," she nodded, "but it couldn't hurt if you ran across him from time to time. If you notice anything odd, get him to me if you would, please."

"Sure," Kate said in time with Will's nod. "But can we take blackmail pics first?"

Will steered her towards the door without waiting for a response. Honestly, ask for a little clarification and this is what she got? Kate decided to take it as a 'yes.'

When Hank showed up in the doorway to the lounge a few hours later, Kate had all but forgotten about the shot. He'd failed to do anything entertaining up until now, so why dwell?

"Hey," she called from her corner of the couch. "I'm on Season Three of Paranormal Investigations if you want in on it."

"'K," he chirped.

Kate took a second look. Now, Hank was generally fairly easy-going, even guardedly optimistic about most things. Unwarrantably so, she generally thought, but not chirpy. Chirpy would have gotten on her last nerve years ago.

"Are… you feeling okay?" she tried.

"Will asked that, too," he grinned. "But then he had a patient? So he had to go? Or, actually, I had to go? He sent me to the Doc? But I found you instead!" Yeah, he was entirely too happy about the fact.

"Well, great," Kate smiled back, trying to remember how to record using her phone. "Why don't you come in and take a seat, Hank?"

"What's with 'Hank,' anyway?" he asked cheerfully, flopping into the middle of the couch and turning towards her. "What's wrong with 'Henry'? I've been wanting to ask that, for, um," he tried his best to frown as he thought, but his lips kept inching up. "Ages and ages," he finally decided on, "and ages," he tacked on, belatedly.

"Well," Kate finally found the record button and casually dropped her phone onto the coffee table. "What was the question again?"

She wasn't going to have to do the 2am feedings for _months_.

* * *

Towing Hank along to the Boss' office an hour later, Kate decided to chalk this afternoon up to the 'good karma' point's side of her equation. The man was wearing her out and the fact that she hadn't killed him yet – or even duct taped his mouth shut – clearly showed Ghandi-esque levels of restraint.

"Hey, Boss," she called before they had even cleared the door. "He's weird. And annoying. Here ya go."

"I'm not weird," Henry protested, ruining his affronted stance with a giggle. "You're weird." Great, third-grade level insults _and_ giggling, a lot of giggling since Hank apparently found his repartee the funniest thing since Kate had told him the joke about the chicken crossing the road.

"Please make him stop," she implored Magnus, who had risen from her desk to approach them. She got a distracted smile as the Boss focused on Henry, who was wiping tears of mirth from his eyes.

"Henry?" she asked, quietly.

"Doc!" Hank gave her the most open smile Kate had ever seen on his face – which, after the past hour, was saying something – and all but threw himself at her. "I've been looking for you for ages. And ages," he mumbled into her neck.

"Well, you found me," she smiled, holding him close and running her hands over his back.

"I did!" Henry started giggling again and Kate figured it was probably time to sneak out before Magnus asked why, exactly, it had taken Hank 'ages' to find her.

"Thank you," Kate looked back over her shoulder at the words and furiously tried not to blush at the soft smile she was getting from Magnus. She hitched up one shoulder and quickly rounded the door frame.

"For what?" she heard Henry ask, cheerily confused.

"Not you, darling," and Magnus really ought to laugh more often.

After all of this effort, she really deserved a nap, Kate thought virtuously.

* * *

She hadn't seen Henry again since depositing him in the Doc's office, but he turned up in the morning to watch Will go under the needle.

"Hey, Happy," she grinned at the rising blush working its way up his neck.

"I don't want to know what it's going to cost to have this forgotten, do I?" he gritted through his teeth.

"Probably not," she agreed blithely.

"You might want to wait a few days," Will advised with a smirk, leaning back against the raised table. "You might be even worse."

Kate had been trying not to think about that.

"Let's see how well you do, smart-ass," she griped instead.

"Yeah," Will's smile faded.

Great, _now_ he decided to be nervous?

"It'll be fine," she said, awkwardly. "It'd be nice to see you that, y'know, happy."

Silence reigned.

"What?" she finally demanded. "I'm just saying, you all are way too serious, if you ask me. Deal."

"Fine," and at least Will was smiling again. "But if you blackmail me, I'll tell Magnus that you are displaying all the symptoms of someone who needs some sort of shot. Daily."

Kate decided the most mature response to that threat was to stick her tongue out at him.

"Is that out for a reason?" arch British tones had her hurriedly swallowing her tongue again. "I see you've gathered an audience, as well," Magnus smiled at Will who quirked his lips back before suddenly finding the floor captivating. Kate looked down briefly, but decided that white really wasn't her favorite color to stare at. Bo-ring.

"Hm. Arm, please. It'll just take a second," and no surprise that the Boss had picked up on his nerves, either. Really, okay, so the giggling had been sort of trying, but it wasn't as though he'd turned purple or something. Actually, now that Kate thought about it, she didn't think she'd ever heard Will really laugh. Just snorts and fake-snickering. This could be good.

"Done," and Magnus was really fast at this. Must be all the practice.

"Right, so I guess I'll just," Will pointed awkwardly towards the door in lieu of actual words, "and come see you if I, um, anything feels weird?"

"I'll brush up on my knock-knock jokes," Kate blurted. God, these people were way too serious about this crap. Anything to break the tension. "What?" she answered Hank's glare, "You loved those."

"Thanks," she got a half-smile from Will. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Come find me for any reason," Magnus reiterated with narrowed eyes as Will slid towards the doorway.

"Got it," and he was gone.

"Hey," Kate turned towards Hank, "How long did it take before, you know, you went all weird?"

"It's not like time was really important to me, then," he pointed out. She gave him her best look, though it wasn't really up to Magnus-standards at all. "I don't know, a few hours I would guess, why?"

"I told you, I gotta brush up on my jokes," Kate headed out the door at Henry's growl. "Don't be jealous, I told you all my best ones," she said placatingly, smirking as she headed for the library. If there weren't any joke books there, then there definitely was the world's best couch for napping on, right in a sunbeam. Yeah, good plan.

* * *

When Will didn't find her about the same time that Hank had the day before, Kate decided to make it easy on him and just happen to run across his path. In retrospect, given what a workaholic he normally was, she really should have started with his office instead of leaving it halfway down her list. By the time she got there, she was telling the Will in her head very fiercely that he'd better be fifty times as entertaining as Hank to make up for all of this work.

Swanning into his office, she leveled her best grin at his skinny form curled into a corner of the window. "Seriously, the Boss says to take a day off and I find you in your office? What kind of crap holiday is that?"

When Will slowly turned to face her, though, Kate's smile slid off quickly.

"Hey," he said, lowly, eyes distant and mouth hard.

"Hey back," she said, crossing over to the window. "I… guess you don't want to hear a knock-knock joke."

"No," he said, glancing back outside. "I guess it didn't affect me. Lucky, huh?"

"Yeah." Sure, it hadn't affected him at _all_. Right. Kate checked to make sure the window was still closed. Yes, but not locked. Crap. "Hey, um, you had lunch yet? 'Cause I'm starving and I make to-die-for grilled cheese. Seriously. Out of this world."

"No," he said, tacking on a, "thanks," after a moment.

At a loss, Kate stood for a moment, watching as Will somehow compressed even more of his body into the small corner.

"Um, seen the Boss yet today?" she cursed her mouth as he glared at her. "Or Henry or, um, Biggie? I can't seem to find anyone so, y'know, I was wondering if something was going on. Or something," she stuttered to a close. Smooth, Kate, she told herself, real smooth.

"Oh," his brow cleared. "No, but I've been. Busy. Stuff," he gestured vaguely back towards his desk. Kate glanced over at the pristine surface.

"Right," she agreed. "So, how about coming to help me find them?" She tried out her best pleading look when his eyes flickered over to her. "Please?" Maybe a hint of a pout. The one that didn't make her look like a guppy.

"Sure," he finally agreed reluctantly, looking down at the grounds outside.

"Great!" she toned it down after he flinched. "I mean, good. Come on. Let's, um, start this way."

Slowly, he rose to his feet and crossed over to her as though every step weighed fifty pounds. Her original plan to lead him the long way around to Magnus' office dimmed. It'd take five years to get there at this rate.

"Or, um, maybe this way instead, it's more populated generally, right? So, better idea." He nodded at the floor, so Kate took the initiative and stepped down the hallway. After a beat or two, Will followed. Okay, she so did not play follow-the-leader. Reaching back, she grabbed his hand, waiting for him to fight her on it and trying to think up a half-decent excuse or even a crappy one that she could stick with to the bitter end. Either way.

Instead, he latched on to her hand with desperate strength and brought his other hand around to grab her wrist.

"Okay," she decided to pretend that all of this was completely normal. "Uh, this way."

Dispensing with all forms of subtlety – it wasn't really her strong suit, anyway – she led them straight to Magnus' office.

"Hey, you must be good luck," she covered badly, "She's right here."

"Right," he nodded. "So," he shrugged, "I should," and stopped.

"So," she pulled them further into the room and tried her hand at telepathy, beaming her thoughts straight from her eyes into Magnus', which had shot to her immediately upon entrance.

"Will," and she must not be half-bad at it, as Magnus quickly rose and came to greet them. She also, and Kate had a feeling that it wasn't incidental, cut off Will's path of escape. "I was just about to come find you. Can I bother you for some advice on a case in Rome?"

He nodded, but when Kate tried to leave, his grip hadn't slackened in the slightest. She waved her hand slightly, drawing Magnus' attention to her human shackle.

"Wonderful," she answered the nod, before slowing reaching out and threading her hand into as much of Will's as she could, where he was wrapped around Kate's wrist. "It's an interesting situation, but a bit ethically muddled, I'm afraid." Kate hadn't realized that the Boss was capable of prattling on, as Will's hand loosened to transfer to Magnus.

One hand achieved, Kate tuned out the long-winded lecture on Roman theology to watch as the other wiry hand clenched around her own was gradually detached and gathered into Magnus' keeping.

Kate hesitated slightly as she stepped away, but Magnus nodded at her with a small smile as she nudged Will towards the sofa, voice lowering slightly as she pulled him in closer.

Relieved, Kate escaped, quietly closing the door behind herself and decided to crash Hank's cave and goad him into giving her something untested and completely unfinished to try out. She really needed to shoot something.

When she accidentally happened by Magnus' office a couple times later on, the door was still shut.

* * *

By the next morning, seated on the edge of the table, legs swinging, Kate was less sanguine about this whole thing. Hank sauntered in and leaned next to her with a smirk.

"And then there was one," he intoned, melodramatically. "Hey, where's Will?" he looked around, curious.

Kate hadn't felt the need to pass on Will's reaction to the drug.

"Maybe some people have better things to do," she grinned as he looked over at her, unconvinced. "Yes, I did just call you a slacker."

"Psh, after the past two days?" he rolled his eyes. "You have no room to talk. I have jokes about Windows that you're going to _love_."

Well, that would be preferable to tossing herself _out_ of a window, Kate reflected. Probably, she amended, eying Henry's grin.

"Great," she said. Actually, she had laid better plans than simply sitting around waiting for the drug to make her loopy. Plans that involved hiding until it all blew over. Best that Hank didn't know about that, though.

"Last one, then," and then Magnus filled the room in a way that Kate knew she could never replicate, settling a prepped tray down and reaching for her arm.

"Yay," she muttered weakly, watching the Doc's movements with interest. She'd never had Hank's phobia about needles and blood. Swiftly, her arm was injected, bandaged, and released. Flexing her arm twice, Kate waited out the discomfort of the injection and hopped off the table.

Magnus' hand caught her arm again before her escape and she looked up expectantly, "Find you if I go all funny, got it."

Her lips quirked and Kate realized that Henry had decamped, probably about the time the needle was produced, "For any reason, Kate. Understood?"

She nodded, double-checking for Hank, before she ventured, "Is Will, um, where is he, anyway?"

"He's fine," the Boss let go of her arm, smoothing a hand down her skin before setting her free. "Sleeping, but he'll be fine."

"Right," Kate headed for the door. That was more than enough touchiness for the morning, she had hiding to get to, after all.

* * *

The boys had failed to mention – or, possibly, she had forgotten to ask, but she preferred to blame them – that the need to do whatever ridiculous thing the drug wanted had the tendency to override your common sense. Maybe she should have figured that out when Happy Hank had shown up on her couch, but somehow Kate had just assumed that she could live out the effects in seclusion.

Haunting the hallways, looking for a suitable victim, she decided that her theory had a definite flaw in it. Such as not putting the locks on the _outside_ of the East Tower door. She was going to fix that the minute she could concentrate on anything else.

Hm, Will's office door was closed and she didn't see a light on when she laid down on the floor to peer underneath. Strike One.

The Big Guy was up to his arms in some green substance that Kate really didn't want a closer acquaintanceship with, so she just waved at him and moved on. Strike Two.

Henry was at least in his cave, which was better than her luck had been going so far. For a while, she contented herself with curling up on his cot and listening as he tried to get her to laugh at his truly, unutterably awful jokes. Hank was busy tinkering, though, so she eventually gave up and moved on. Strike Three. Which really only left her with one option.

Standing outside the Boss' office, Kate shifted from one foot to the other. This was going to be so awkward. The drug – and she knew it was the drug, so why couldn't she fight it? – crawled across her skin, compelling her to keep going, but her stubborn nature kept her rooted to the hallway floor.

She'd been traipsing down this hallway a lot this week. Dropping off Hank, leading Will, it was getting excessive, when she thought about it. Still, it had worked out, she – or possibly the drug – reasoned. They were fine. Hank was back to his usual levels of annoying and Will… well, actually, she only had Magnus' word that Will was fine, but she didn't think that the Doc would have blithely injected her if he hadn't been okay. So, she had taken care of them, it didn't mean that Kate had to go down the same road. She shifted feet again. God, this was annoying. In a fit of petulance, Kate stomped a foot against the floor. Magnus had done this to her, it was only fair that she have to suffer, too.

Logical reasons in place, Kate half-stomped through the door only to abruptly stop inside when she didn't see Magnus behind the desk for once. Maybe she'd decided that Kate wouldn't need her and left.

"Hello there," she heard a voice and slid further inside to see the Boss looking at her over the back of the sofa. Or maybe she'd decided to work there, instead. Kate felt a bit silly, but squashed the feeling. She knew that, if she waited, Magnus would get up and coax her inside and then lead her into whatever she thought would make her feel better.

Hell with that. Bad enough that the drug was making her do this at all.

Determinedly, Kate rounded the corner, clambering over part of the arm and landing in the middle of the sofa. If she was going to humiliate herself, it was at least going to be on her terms. Scooting closer, she cuddled into Magnus' side, pathetically grateful for the arm that tightened around her in return.

"Hey," she finally said, too softly. Screwing her face up at her own weak tone, she tried again. "What's up?"

"Financial reports," at that, Kate let her face twist again. Money was only fun when it was hers. Otherwise, it was just a tease. Still, she rested her head on Magnus' shoulder and peeked at the data reports spread across her lap.

"Huh," she noted absently, enjoying the cessation of the itching across her skin, replaced by a lazy hum of contentment, "Norway could be doing better. Sank too much into one outside stock, I bet."

"Hm," the hand that had been running up and down her arm moved to card through her hair. "I did warn Gustave about that before."

"Red-haired guy?" she mumbled into Magnus' neck, trying not to purr, stemmed only by her biological inability.

"Yes," the shuffling sound of papers was actually soothing when she wasn't required to read any of them.

"Yeah, I remember him. He's one of those that believe if you aren't turning over double digit returns, you should jump ship and try another boat. Hasn't ever heard of riding out a storm or something." Kate shivered and tried to tuck herself even closer to Magnus. "Not a good trait right about now."

"Should I send you over there to straighten him out?" Despite the amusement in her tone, Kate was perversely flattered at the offer.

"Nah, I don't think they'd take stock advice from a criminal very well." Seriously, to get any closer, she'd have to crawl into Magnus' blouse with her. Get over it, drug.

"Hm. More fools they," the shuffling stopped and hands slid down to her waist. "Come here, then," didn't help her confusion, until the hands tugged her over onto Magnus' lap before wrapping around her once more. Uncertain, Kate froze, but her skin started up that happy buzz again and she couldn't help but relax into the contact. Giving in, she rested her forehead against the side of the Doc's neck, nose nudging against her throat, and tried to stop herself from humming.

After a few moments, during which Kate felt her muscles reducing to the consistency of honey, Magnus unwrapped one arm to reach away. Before conscious thought, she shifted and groped blindly after the missing arm.

"Sh, now," the unhappy squeak she also didn't remember authorizing was hushed, the arm returning with a blanket which it wrapped snugly around her before resuming the interrupted back rub.

"This is ridiculous," Kate found herself informing Magnus even as she fruitlessly tried to convince her body to move in any fashion.

In response, she got a chuckle, "I'll admit I was expecting your response to be a bit… different, myself."

"What do you mean?" with effort, she managed to lean back far enough to catch sight of blue eyes before the shivering started again. Stubbornly, she tried to wait it out, clenching her jaw. She was going to show this drug who was boss. Well, she amended, after considering that she was still on Magnus' lap, it at least wasn't going to get everything its own way.

"The vaccine tends to, well, the closest I can describe it, is lowering inhibitions," Magnus loosened one arm from her waist to brush hair away from Kate's eyes. "It's hard to predict, though, and doesn't always have an effect. You three are just unlucky, it seems."

"So, what, Hank secretly wants to giggle all the time?" if that was the case, she hoped he would never stop repressing the desire. There was such a thing as being too happy.

"No," Magnus smiled, before pulling Kate back towards herself. After a brief bout of tugging, she allowed it, the progressively intensifying shaking too annoying to last out much longer. "It also magnifies the desire. I dare say you don't always want to be this close to someone, correct?" Kate managed a nod. "But you do sometimes and the drug is attacking your resistance to the desire and making it a central focus."

"You know, I also resist the urge to smack people quite a lot," Kate pointed out after a moment of thought.

"Yes, I had an inkling," she smirked into Magnus' neck at the resigned tone. "I half expected to spend today breaking up fisticuffs. There are still several unknown components to the reaction, however, which makes it difficult to predict."

"Okay," and she was pretty much done with the science geekery. One question was niggling at the back of her mind, but she wasn't sure whether to voice it or not. Nervously, she found herself pressing tighter into Magnus and reaching her arms up to wrap around her neck.

"What is it?" Kate shook her head, unwilling to cross any lines. If the Boss chose, she could simply order her out of the room to punish her and she didn't want to chance that reaction.

"It's alright, Kate," the tone made her fidget, the same one she'd used to calm the boys down before. She hardly needed to be 'calmed down.' Although, she decided, valiantly trying to get her leg to stop nervously bouncing, it couldn't really hurt.

"What about Will?" she finally blurted in a whisper, cringing into a smaller ball.

"Ah," the Doc's arms tightened around her slightly, but that was miles better than being shoved to the floor. "Let's just say that Will suppresses a few too many things." Unsatisfied, Kate took a few deep breaths and leaned back again, trying for 'implacable', but probably winding up with 'worried.' "I'm keeping an eye on him," Magnus relented a bit, "he'll be alright."

"Are," Kate hesitated, this was probably the worse time ever to piss off the boss, but she had to know, "are you sure? Because," she hastened to clarify, not daring to look the older woman in the eye, "when I found him he was, he was at the window." She swallowed thickly, hoping that this wasn't the moment where she screwed everything up.

"Oh, Kate," this time when Magnus pulled her close, she went willingly, soaking up the offered comfort in spite of her confusion. "Kate, I promise you, he wasn't planning anything drastic."

"But," she couldn't know that for certain, but Magnus hushed her and continued.

"I know that he wasn't for many reasons, but not the least of which is that Will had that window painted shut shortly after he took it over for his office. In case his patients _did_ have such ideas." Kate processed this for a moment, finally completely relaxing into Magnus. "When you found him, he was despondent and withdrawn, yes, and bringing him to me was absolutely correct, but he wasn't in that sort of danger."

Kate remembered the look in his eyes, though, and softly argued, "He was close."

"Hm, not as much so as you might think. In any case, I was about to retrieve him when you showed up."

The statement startled her into almost forgetting about the drug for the moment.

"What? But," she wasn't sure exactly what to say to that, "How?"

"Really, Kate," Magnus' laugh was even richer this close, she could feel the reverberations under her ear. "Did you think I would simply turn you all loose without precautions? Look," a nudge to her shoulder prompted Kate to obediently, for once, look over to Magnus' bank of monitors. Reflected back at her was an image of the two of them, to all appearances snuggling on the sofa. Which, she supposed they actually were doing, but just because of chemicals and stuff and this didn't answer her question.

"It's us?" she asked.

"More accurately, it's you," Magnus corrected, pulling her in once more. "It's following your movements, I just happen to be in the same room."

"Um, that's kinda creepy, Doc," Kate decided on after a few moment's thought. "Useful, but creepy."

"I assure you that this is the only time I have used it on you," Magnus promised her. "The thought of containing the lot of you in the infirmary was not a pleasant one."

Kate thought about protesting that they weren't that bad, but decided that, well, yes, they probably were.

"Huh," she couldn't fault her for trying to keep them safe unobtrusively. Well, only a little, at least. "Wait," it suddenly occurred to her, "then why did I have to haul the boys in here if you had your magic eye thing going on?"

"It seemed as though they were in good hands," Magnus said softly by her ear. Kate furiously denied that she was blushing, but still refused to look up.

"You do know that I taped Hank singing "Jingle Bells" and told Will that I thought everyone had vanished, right?" when would this woman learn that Kate could only be trusted so far?

"I believe that you and Henry will have to work out the issue of blackmail material. And you managed, quite effectively, to convince Will to come to me," Kate could tell by the motion her body followed that Magnus had shrugged. "I stand by my statement."

There really wasn't anything Kate could say to that. Instead, she concentrated on the rare lassitude that slowed her down to this contented state, listening to Magnus' heart beat beneath her ear and the slow pull of fingers through her hair. It wasn't quite like sleeping, but for a time she drifted in the comfort.

It wasn't like this meant anything, she told herself firmly after failing to convince herself to move even to the other end of the couch. Just stupid drugs playing mind games on her. When they wore off, there'd be some emergency - cause there always was - and she'd be her usual badass self - cause _she_ always was - and this would all be long forgotten. Failing that, she was pretty sure the Boss would be down with just pretending nothing ever happened. She was pretty badass herself, after all.

Backup plan in place, Kate turned her attention to trying to figure out what tune Magnus was softly humming. Her eyes slid shut in thought and she finally placed the notes as the warm tide of contentment dragged her under.

* * *

Days and weeks and months later, after a crackling-staticky call from Will out of which she discerned just enough words to piece together fire-Sanctuary-Magnus, Kate crept away from the cave she and Garris had taken for their own. In an unused alcove, she curled into a blanket and jammed her earbuds almost painfully into her ears. As the long hours of the night ticked away, one song played on in endless repetition.

Her eyes didn't close once.


End file.
